


Borderlands prompt stories

by laridian



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Painkillers, Panic Attacks, axton is loopy, rhys' socks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27599863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laridian/pseuds/laridian
Summary: Stories from prompts given on Tumblr, Pillowfort, etc. I am the-laridian on Tumblr and Laridian on PF.Stories will be added as I write them, they'll happen when they happen.
Relationships: Rhys & Vaughn (Borderlands), Rhys/Sasha (Borderlands)
Kudos: 11





	1. Axton, Maya

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from [michellespensctratchz](https://michellespensctratchz.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr: Bliss, #15, Axton (Borderlands)

“Thank you for staying with me.”

Maya turned to look at Axton, smiling up at her from the bed. "You're so sweet when you're dosed up on painkillers," she said.

"Nope. Not painkillers. Nope." Axton tried to raise himself up on one elbow. "I mean it. You aren't a Siren, you're an angel. A devastating angel of dangerous mercy."

Maya looked at him with pity. "You are so dosed up. I should put this on ECHONet."

"I don't care. Let everyone know! I got a real sweet live angel watching over me - "

"To make sure you don't do something stupid like get out of bed until everything's healed - "

"- who has blessed me with her presence and amazing hair."

Maya laughed out loud. Yeah, she'd record this and save it for sometime later, when Axton needed to be taken down a few pegs. Or maybe just when he did something stupid.


	2. Rhys, Vaughn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From [Fifteen Out of Context Quote Prompts](https://the-laridian.tumblr.com/post/636091917391822848/fifteen-out-of-context-quote-prompts), #11, Vaughn, requested by [@michellespensctratchz](https://michellespensctratchz.tumblr.com/).  
> Set v early in the story, after escaping Rudiger.

“Vaughn. Bro. Stay with me.”

“I thought I was going to die,” Vaughn said, his voice high and not very steady. “This isn’t what I came here for. This isn’t – “

“Vaughn!” Rhys knelt and put his hands on Vaughn’s shoulders. “You lived! You’ve got a great story to tell when we get back! And you can punch it up, tell how you slammed the case into that guy’s head and freed yourself.” Rhys didn’t like the look in Vaughn’s eyes.

“Rhys.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m going to start screaming and I won’t be able to stop,” Vaughn said, just above a whisper.

“Bro. No.” That would alert everyone still in the area, not to mention skags and who knew what else. He pulled Vaughn close and held him tight. “We’re alive. You’re alive. It’s gonna be okay. I’ll take care of everything.” He certainly couldn’t say he had everything under control, not after what that had just happened. “You just stay behind me. Let me take point.” Besides, Rhys was the only one armed. “We’ll take care of this, we’ll be rich, we’ll go back to Hyperion and make Vasquez clean the toilets with his hair.”

Rhys could feel Vaughn shaking, from laughter, he hoped. He held Vaughn until the tension finally eased from the accountant’s body – not entirely, but enough that Vaughn wasn’t likely to snap and run screaming in the desert in nothing but his underwear. “You good, bro?”

Vaughn nodded. “Yeah. I think so.” He pulled away from Rhys and adjusted his glasses. “Sorry.”

“Vaughn, this is a crazy place. It’s okay.” Rhys stood and held out a hand. “C’mon. Let’s get this over with, and then we’ll go back and get drunk on really expensive alcohol.”

Vaughn laughed once, still nervous, but took Rhys’ hand and stood. “Okay. Yeah.” He straightened and put on a brave face. “Let’s do this.”


	3. Axton, Salvador, Maya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From [this prompt](https://the-laridian.tumblr.com/post/636251231051972608/13-you-said-you-always-wanted-so-voila) from [michellespensctratchz](https://michellespensctratchz.tumblr.com/): You said you always wanted ____, so, voila! (Dunno why, but this feels like Axton.)

"Please don't tell me Axton is involved in this," Maya muttered. She didn't think she could be heard over the godawful racket from the landing pad, but apparently Salvador did.

"Axton's involved - "

"I said don't tell me, Sal. Just once, I would like someone else to act like the adult they supposedly are." The noise wasn't getting any less as they approached. "What's he doing, feeding scraps to the rakks so he can shoot them?"

"It's something to do," Salvador said.

The rounded the corner and stopped as they saw Axton with a small(ish) rakk in a cage just barely big enough to hold it. The rakk beat its wings against the cage and shrieked again.

Maya put a hand to her chin, trying to figure out what Axton was going to say about all this. 

“Hey!" Axton waved them over. "Salvador! This is for you!"

Salvador's expression indicated he had not expected that statement. "...Why?" he asked.

"Wait, let me come over so I can hear you," Axton called, and jogged to meet them. "I know birthday stuff isn't really your thing - "

Maya covered her mouth now, to hide her grin at Salvador's confusion.

" - but I remembered you saying, when you were a kid, there was one thing you never got. You said you always wanted a pet rakk. So, wallah!" Axton grinned and gestured toward the thing fighting the cage. It stopped and fixed its gaze on the three.

"...When... did I say this?" Salvador asked, studying the rakk, which gnawed on a cagebar.

"Last month when we were talkin' about birthdays, at the Skag Shack. It was on the third round of Memory Stix and it was about birthday presents as a kid. And you said - "

Realization dawned for Maya and she began laughing.

"Hey, c'mon, this is serious," Axton protested.

"A pet _rock_ , you - " Salvador sputtered into Truxican, while Maya had to take a seat so she wouldn't fall down laughing.


	4. Rhys, Sasha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From [this prompt](https://the-laridian.tumblr.com/post/636249985770553344/from-the-fifteen-out-of-context-quote-prompts-15) by [michellespensctratchz](https://michellespensctratchz.tumblr.com/): From the Fifteen Out of Context Quote Prompts: #15 Not to sound like a capitalist oppressor, but I have people who do that for me now. ~Rhys.

"Rhys?"

"Yeah?" Rhys didn't look up from his work. Okay, yeah, he got it, but how did that -

"Ever thought about... you know..." Sasha waved a hand at the pile of unmatched socks waiting to be sorted and properly put away. "Taking care of that?"

"I'll get to it."

"You said that yesterday."

Rhys finally looked at Sasha, then the sock pile, then Sasha. "They're all clean."

"That's really good to hear." She crossed her arms. "Why are they still in a pile on the floor." Not a question. Tiny alarms went off for Rhys. Unfortunately, they were tiny.

"I said, I'll get to it. It'll be done as soon as I find someone to do it."

Sasha's eyebrows went impressively high. "Excuse me? You can't put away your own socks?"

"Sasha, we can make more money. We can never make more time. Isn't it worth paying someone else to take care of things like this? They get paid, we get our time back."

She seemed to be buying it.

"I mean, we don't have to do everything ourselves anymore. Like the cooking, or the cleaning, or putting away my socks - not to sound like a capitalist oppressor, but I have people who do that for me now."

Wrong thing to say. Rhys flinched at Sasha's expression. "Or I could enjoy the dignity of labor and put away my own socks. You have a point," he added, scrambling off the sofa.


	5. August

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt "Streets, for August" by [michellespensctratchz](https://michellespensctratchz.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Tumblr link](https://the-laridian.tumblr.com/post/637343531529388032/how-about-streets-for-august)

"... then we'll finally get off this rock."

August had heard it so many times before, and the ending "we'll finally leave Pandora" was a common one. He hadn't yet heard of anyone who'd managed it. Sure, some of the corporates came and went, but that was different. They weren't Pandorans. They were from elsewhere, and they went back to elsewhere.

August cleaned another glass and set it aside. He'd had the same dreams once. Make one big score, and get off this planet. Where to? Eh, he'd wasted too many thoughts on that when he was younger. Most of the time it became "doesn't matter, except not here."

That big score never came. How much would it even take? 'Course, some said if you didn't have money, you had to have friends, powerful friends, corporates or Vault Hunters, and August knew there wasn't any chance of that. He'd never seen anyone like that walking the dusty streets of any Pandoran town.

So he'd settled, kinda, but so what? At least he had a roof over his head, a little extra money, and, recently, a girlfriend, and maybe that was all he could expect, but it could be enough.

His face lit up when Sasha entered the bar, and she smiled at him. More than enough, he thought.


End file.
